Voodoo Magic
by gdspgcfan
Summary: Sam and Dean finish up a case, and fail to immediately recognize the side effects. Only time can reveal the true dangers of what has happened. PLEASE R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Late night, a black Chevy Impala hurtles down the deserted highway.

Inside the car, the driver and passenger are having an argument about the music, currently Metallica, being blared at top volume.

Sam shouts so he can be heard "Dean! Just turn it down alright? Jeez, do you want to wake up the whole state!" Sam reaches out and turns the volume down himself.

Dean reaches back over immediately and turns it back up. "It's easier for me to tune you out when the music is up Sammy." Dean looks over and smirks at Sam.

"Ok Dean, I didn't want to have to resort to this, but you leave me no choice." Sam opens up the glove compartment and pulls out a couple of Dean's Motor Head cassettes, and holds them out the window, threatening to drop them to their shattering death.

"Ok! Ok!" Dean quickly reaches over and turns the volume down a bit in a desperate attempt to save his beloved music.

Sam grins with satisfaction, and tosses the cassettes back into the glove compartment.

The boys were moving on to find their next case . . . they'd just finished dealing with the angry spirit of an ancient voodoo priestess . . . She'd cast one of her voodoo hexes while they were attempting to banish her . . . but as far as they could tell . . . nothing had come of it . . .

* * *

The Next Morning

Dean pulls into a diner so that they can grab some breakfast.

Walking into the diner, Dean swipes a newspaper and sits down to read through it. When the waitress walks up to get their order, Dean barely even looks up from the paper as he orders, and Sam's eyes are fixated just a bit lower than her face the whole time she's standing there. When she walks away, Sam lets out a low whistle and Dean looks up at him.

Dean: scowling "It's rude to stare Sam. Women deserve more respect than that."

Sam: "Come on man! She was smokin' hot! smirking Bet you $20 I can get her number before we leave."

Dean: rolls his eyes at Sam "you are so immature Sam . . . I really don't know how we could possible be related . . ." keeps reading through the newspaper . . . hoping to stumble onto a new case to work . . .

Sam: "Hey Dean . . . pass me dad's journal . . ." he wanted to flip through it, make sure most all of the information was still fresh in his mind . . . just in case he'd need it for their next case.

Dean: "sure . . . here . . ." picks up the journal and hands it over to Sam . . . but as he picks it up . . . a few scraps of paper fall onto the table. Dean picks them up and looks them over, they all had a name and a phone number . . . and all were written on those little paper napkins you get in a bar . . .

Dean: "Sam . . . can't you find a better place to store your numbers?" tossing the napkins at Sam

Sam: looks them over "these aren't mine Dean . . ." looks up at Dean, smirking "they must be yours . . . "

Dean: "no way . . . you know I don't pick up random girls in bars . . . that's your gig Sam."


	2. Chapter 2

Sam looks at Dean a moment "Yeah . . . I don't know what I was thinking . . . who'd give you their number anyways?" smirks and laughs

Dean: scowls "Just because I don't sleep with every girl I meet, doesn't mean I couldn't get one if I wanted to . . ."

Sam: "Sure, sure Dean . . . hold onto that dream . . ."

Dean:"Whatever . . . you're such a jerk . . ."

Sam: "bitch . . . "

* * *

After Breakfast 

Dean and Sam are leaning against the Impala, looking at a map, deciding which direction to drive, when Dean's phone beeps to tell him he has a voice mail. Dean picks up his phone and dials his voicemail box, listening to his message. His face becomes shadowed with confusion and he looks over at Sam

Sam: "What?"

Dean: "Did you use my name last time we were at a bar?"

Sam: "Why would I use your name?"

Dean: "I don't know! But I've got this weird message from some girl named Kirsten . . . "

Sam: "Let me listen . . . " takes the phone from Dean.

As Sam listens to the message, Dean shoves his hands in his pocket and leans back against the impala. Realizing there's something in his pocket, he pulls it out, revealing another bar napkin, with yet another phone number on it . . . "uh-oh . . ."

Sam: looking back over at Dean "What?"

Dean: "uh . . . hand me my phone back . . . "

Sam hands him the phone, and Dean dials the number on the napkin. A voice on the other end answers

Dean: "Yeah, hi, this is Dean . . . is Naomi there? . . . . . . . Yeah . . . uh, me too . . . but I was uh . . . just wondering, I can't find one of my jackets, what wasI wearing the other night? . . . . . . . . . Oh, my black leather jacket? No, that's not the one . . . I've still got that one . . . . . . . . . . . Ok, well uh . . . thanks anyways . . . . . . . . . . . No, yeah, I'll definitely give you a call soon . . . we'll hang out . . . . . . . . . . . Ok then . . . . Buh-bye."hangs up and looks at Sam

Sam: "Well?"

Dean: "Apparently it was really me . . . god, I just can't believe I'd do something like that!"

Sam: grins "You make me proud Dean . . . "

Dean: "But it's just not . . . not . . . AHHHHHH!" Dean collapses to the ground, pain searing through his head. Dean clutches at his head, trying to make it all go away . . . but it only gets stronger . . . suddenly, a vision flashes before his eyes . . . but it was of the past . . . the night Jess died . . . Sam laying in bed . . . the fire all around . . . Jess pinned to the ceiling . . . Dean could feel every lick of flame . . . hear Jessica's last breath . . . he could feel every ounce of Sam's terror . . . then, as suddenly as it had started, the vision vanished . . . leaving Dean crumpled up on the ground next to his Impala.

After taking a moment to gather his wits, Dean slowly looked up at Sam, who had dropped to his knees beside Dean, worry displayed over his entire face

Dean: "Sam . . . we've got a problem . . . "


	3. Chapter 3

Sam: "Dean! What just happened! Are you hurt?"

Dean: Still trying to catch his breath "Sam, I . . . I uh . . . just had a vision . . . "

Sam's face twists into a mask of confusion "huh?"

Dean: "A vision . . . refresh my memory here Sammy, but isn't that your territory?"

Sam:A hint of fear now creeping into his voice "uh . . . yeah . . ."

Dean: "Ok, so then why the hell did I get it!"

Sam: "I don't know! trying to calm down a bit ok . . . just tell me what you saw . . . we need to figure out where we need to go, and I'm the one who knows how to interpret these visions . . ."

Dean: "We don't need to get anywhere Sam . . . this wasn't about something that's going to happen . . ."

Sam: "What do you mean? My visions are always of the future . . ."

Dean: "Yeah I know . . . I guess the power works differently in me though . . . what I saw . . . it's already happened . . . " He avoids Sam's eyes . . . not wanting to have to tell Sam what he'd seen . . .

Sam: "But what did you see?"

Dean: "Uh . . . I don't remember?"

Sam: "Dean . . ."

Dean: "Ok, ok . . . it was the night Jess died . . . Sam . . . I don't get it? Why would I have a vision in the first place, let alone one about someone I didn't even know?"

Sam: "My powers must have somehow been transferred to you . . ."

Dean: "Ok, but why? . . . . And how is that even possible?"

Sam: "Well . . . maybe the visions decided they liked you better."

Dean: "Could you possible even pretend to be serious about this! You're always cracking jokes, messing around! You never take anything seriously!"

Sam: "Ok! Jeez . . . but you could use to lighten up a bit . . ."

Dean: "Oh, yeah . . . I'll just squeeze that in between figuring out why I'm having your visions, and figuring out why I'm suddenly the one doing one night stands and getting random phone numbers . . . what's happened to me Sam!"

Sam: "We need to figure this out . . . get some research done . . . Oh, hey! Maybe we should hit a bar tonight . . . see what happens with you . . . you know . . . strictly research purposes of course." smirks

Dean: "You just want an excuse to get drunk and hit on girls . . ." thinks about the idea though . . . they'd be able to find out if all those numbers really were his . . . and maybe that could somehow help him figure out why he was getting these damned nerve racking visions instead of Sam . . . "Fine . . . but I'm not gonna sleep in the Impala if you pick up some girl . . . I'm sick of getting kicked outta my own damn motel room."


	4. Chapter 4

Sam: Smirks "It's not my fault they can't resist me Dean . . . "

Dean: "Oh yeah . . . I'm sure that's the reason . . . but I'm serious, I'm only going with you for research . . ."

Sam: "Oh come on . . . we can still have a little fun tonight!"

Dean: "Whatever . . . lets just find a motel and settle in for a day or so . . ."

Sam: "Fine."Hegoes around and gets in the drivers seat as Dean climbs into the passenger side. Sam starts up the Impala. Revving the engine, Sam reaches over and pops a Black Sabbath cassette into the player, and cranks up the volume, much to Deans displeasure. As Sam pulls the car out of the parking lot, Dean makes every attempt to shield his ears from the intrusive beat of the so called music.

Dean pulls out the laptop and punches at the keys for a moment, then turns it around to Sam, revealing a map. Since he knows better than to try and be heard over the blaring music, Dean just point to a spot on the screen, showing Sam where they currently were, and traces out the path to the nearest motel. About 10 minutes later, Sam cuts the wheel and guides the car to a stop in front a motel. Dean and Sam read the sign and share in one of those "uh-oh" moments . . . they had just pulled up in front of the "No-Tell Motel". They exchange glances, silently agreeing to pretend they didn't know what had just happened.

Sam steps out onto the warm gravel of the parking lot, and looks around. He ducks his head back inside the car for a moment, and comes out with a credit card and ID.

Sam: "Be right back . . . I'm gonna go get a room."

Dean nods and grabs his duffel bag out of the backseat. He watches Sam walk into the office, and wonders what alias they were using today.

Sam walks up to the man at the front desk, reading the name plate as he approached.

Sam: "G'moring Mr. Matheson . . . one room please." Hetosses the credit card onto the counter.

Hans Matheson looks up at Sam, then down at the credit card "Will that be two queens, or one king Mr. . . . " checks the name on the credit card . . . "Aaron Escolopio?"

Sam: "Two queens please . . ." Sam signs the credit card receipt and takes the keys from Hans.

Hans: "Room 13 . . . Have a nice day." Hereturns to his newspaper, catching up on theevents from the past few days.

Sam walks back out and grabs his stuff from the Impala. "Room thirteen Dean . . ."

Dean rolls his eyes "Oh aren't we lucky . . ."

When they get to the room, Sam unlocks the door, letting it swing open. They stand there a moment, taking in the decor . . .

the room looked as if Mardi Gras had exploded . . . the wallpaper was a montage of different beer bottle labels and beer brand logos. There were framed photos all over the place of the many different and quite unique costumes and festivities of Mardi Gras. But to top it all off . . . the icing on the cake . . . was most definitely the fact that some moron out there, had collected as many strands of beads from Mardi Gras as he, or she, could . . . and it looked like they had coated the room with glue, and then flung the beads. They were everywhere . . . they were nailed to the wall, glued to the lampshades, hanging from the ceiling, and they'd even patterned out a design on the shower curtain with them . . . it was thoroughly disturbing.

Sam and Dean simultaneously: ". . . huh . . . "


	5. Chapter 5

Dean walks over and tosses his stuff on one of the beds, still somewhat disturbed by his surroundings. Sam tosses his bag onto the other bed.

Sam: "So . . . uh . . . we got our next case yet?"

Dean: "Uh, Sam? We _are_ our next case . . . We're not taking on anything until I get rid of these visions . . ."

Sam: "Eh . . . you'll get used to them . . ."

Dean: "I don't _want_ to get used to them! I want _rid_ of them!"

Sam: "Whoa! Down boy . . . Calm down . . ."

Dean: Trying to calm down "Ok . . . first thing we need to do . . . figure out how the heck I ended up with these visions . . . we need to research . . . come on . . . we're going to the library . . ."

Sam: "Aw come on! I thought we were gonna research tonight! At the bar? . . . Ugh . . . fine . . . " He grabs his coat and follow Dean out to the impala.

Sam gets in the Impala with Dean, and drives to the local public library.

Sam: "And just how the heck do you plan on finding all this out Dean? It's not like all libraries have the 'Magic Spells, Curses, and Hexes' section . . . This is just a waste of time."

Dean: "I don't know Sam! But we're going to figure it out . . . we have to . . . because this?" (meaning the visions) "This is not me . . ."

Sam: "Yeah . . . you're acting even bitchier than normal . . . " He hears his phone ring. He checks the Caller ID box, and reads the name 'Sarah'. "I gotta take this one Dean . . ."

Dean: "Of course you do . . ."Rolls his eyes as he watches Sam walk out.

Sam walks outside and answers his phone "Hello?"

Sarah: "Hi Sam, it's Sarah . . ."She waswondering if he'd even remember her.

Sam: "Hey, 'sup?"

Sarah: "Not much . . . just, was thinking about you . . . wondering how you're doing . . ." She felt like an idiot . . . Sam probably didn't even care about her anymore . . . but at the time, he'd seemed so . . . perfect . . ."

Sam: "Aw, how cute . . . I'm good . . . Hey, we should grab a beer sometime . . . where you at again?"

Sarah: "Um . . . Sam? You don't even remember me do you . . ." She said,sounding sad and a little upset.

Dean, wondering what the hellwas taking so long, goes out to Sam "Sam! Come on, we have research to do here . . . who's on the phone?"

Sam: Covering the phone receiver thinking Sarah can't here him "Some chick named Sarah . . . i don't know . . ."

Dean: "What? Sam . . . Sarah from when we dealt with that freaky ass haunted painting?"

Sam: "Oh, that Sarah? I thought it was that one from . . . oh nevermind . . ." Heuncovers the receiver, not knowing Sarah had just heard that conversation.

Sarah: "Sam!"

Sam: "Yeah . . . what . . ."

Sarah: She could tell something was wrong . . . this wasn't the Sam she'd fallen in love with. "Put Dean on the phone . . ."

* * *

A/N: Thank you to everyone who's been reading my fic and to those who have left comment/review! Reviews are MORE than welcome! Feedback of any kind is always helpful (especially since this is my first fic) I'll be updating again tomorrow so don't forget to check back please!


	6. Chapter 6

Sam: "Uh . . . ok . . ." He hands his phone to Dean.

Dean: "Hello? Sarah?"

Sarah: "Yeah Dean, it's me . . . um . . . what's going on?"

Dean: "What do you mean?"

Sarah: "Sam's acting, well . . . he doesn't sound like the same Sam that I met when you guys were here . . . Is he alright?"

Dean: "I guess, I haven't really noticed anything off about him, but I've kinda been going through some stuff myself lately . . . But hey, we're pretty close to your town right now, maybe we could swing by and you and Sam could go out to dinner."

Sarah: "Uh . . ." She was really confused now . . . had she just really not known them at all? Or was something really strange going on . . . she decided that she needed to see them . . . both of them . . . they were talking . . . well, like each other . . . "Uh . . . yeah, that'd be great . . . how soon do you uh, think you could be here?"

Dean: "Um . . . Give us 30 minutes, we're about an hour away, but the way Sam drives, we'll be there in half an hour."

Sarah: "See you then." Shehangs up and says to herself "Sam's gonna drive? . . . This is bad . . . Something's wrong . . . Dean doesn't let anyone drive that car . . ."

Dean hands Sam his phone back and turns toward the car

Dean: "Get your stuff Sam . . . we're taking a fieldtrip."

Sam: "Where . . ."

Dean: "Just get in the car . . ." Hewalks around to the driver's side.

Sam: "Hey! You aren't driving . . . No way . . ."

Dean: "Fine, but you'll have to drive where I say . . ."

Sam goes and grabs his stuff off the table in the library, and comes back out, wondering why they suddenly had to go. Sam tosses the stuff into the backseat, and climbs in, starting up the engine.

* * *

Sarah is pacing around in front of her house, waiting for Dean and Sam to show up . . . she had a really bad feeling about all this . . . she could tell something was wrong. She was worried . . . she really cared about Sam, and she wanted to make sure he was alright. She checks her watch . . . it'd been about half an hour since Dean had said they were on their way . . . she looks up as the headlights of a car catch her eyes, and she watches as Sam pulls the car to a stop in front of her. 

Dean and Sam get out of the Impala.

Dean: "Hey Sarah . . . It's good to see you again . . ." He smiles.

Sam: Hey, 'sup . . ."

Sarah looks curiously at Sam, but doesn't mention anything quite yet.

Sarah: "Hi . . . um . . . please, come inside . . . it's kind chilly out here." Sheturns to walk inside, and Sam and Dean follow.

Sarah: Sitting down on the sofa "So, uh . . . How have you guys been?"

Dean: "We're ok . . . kinda trying to figure some stuff out right now . . . we got this new case, it's confusing to say the least . . ."

Sam: "It is not . . . Dean's just being a baby about it . . ."

Dean: "I am not!"

Sam: "Whatever, I don't even get why we came here in the first place . . . how the hell is she supposed to help us Dean!"

Dean: "Because she knows us . . . maybe she can help us figure out what's wrong!"

Sarah: She was worried "What are you talking about Dean?"

Sam: "It's nothing, lets just go Dean . . ."

Dean: "Sam, please go wait in the car, I need to talk to Sarah . . ."

Sam: "Fine . . . but hurry it up . . . I still wanna hit that bar tonight . . ." He walks back out, annoyed with Dean.

Dean: "Sarah, listen . . . what I'm about to tell you, I swear it's true, please don't get weirded out or anything . . ."

Sarah: "Dean, just tell me what's going on . . ."


	7. Chapter 7

Dean: "That's the thing, see, Sam used to get these . . . visions . . . of things that were going to happen . . . but today . . . today, I got a vision . . . I've never gotten a vision in my entire life, and suddenly I get hit with one today . . ."

Sarah: Raises one eyebrow "Vision? . . . Uhhh . . . ."

Dean: "And you think I'm crazy . . . ."

Sarah: "No, no that's not it . . . I'm just . . . trying to understand . . ."

Dean: "Look, lets just forget about the visions for a second . . ."

Sarah: "Uh . . . alright . . ."

Dean: "Look, after what happened here . . . with that painting, and everything . . . you obviously know the kind of things we deal with, and you know that there are other things out there . . . things that aren't like us . . ."

Sarah: "Well, that's certainly one way to put it . . . and yeah, it uh, it certainly helps explain a lot of things . . ."

Dean: "Yeah it does . . . But uh, me and Sam, we uh, we were hoping you could help us now . . ."

Sarah: "Me? But . . . how? I mean, I don't know the first thing about any of this kind of thing . . ."

Dean: "But you know us . . . and right now, that's what I need . . ."

Sarah: "Alright . . . How can I help?"

Dean: "Well, you never really got to know me all that well I don't think . . . but I know you got to know Sam. Does anything seem . . . off . . . in any way? I mean, there's got to be some reason why I'm getting the visions now, so maybe if you can help us figure out ourselves, we can figure out the vision thing . . ."

Sarah: "Well . . . when he was on the phone earlier . . . he uh, well, he seemed more like you . . ."

Dean: "Like me? What, he was being nicer than usual?"

Sarah: "No . . . no actually you're the one being more polite than normal . . ."

Dean: Looks slightly hurt "I'm not polite?"

Sarah: "No! That's not what I meant . . . it's just that . . . well . . . you were . . . or you seemed more . . . more like the uh . . . 'meet in a bar, go back to a motel' kinda guy . . ."

Dean: Looks shocked and slightly horrified "I did! . . . I uh . . . umm . . ." He wastrying to take that in. "Uh . . ." thinking of all those phone numbers that had fallen out of dad's journal "So like . . . I'm more the type to probably have lots of uh, bar napkins . . . with uh, phone numbers on them?"

Sarah: "Well . . . uh, you're a great guy Dean, really, but . . . well . . . yeah . . . and Sam, he's, well . . . I thought he was . . . more the kinda guy you'd meet in like, a library or something . . . and talk to, and maybe have dinner with. Well actually, I did have dinner with him . . . but uh . . . I don't know . . . you guys seem so . . . opposite now . . . maybe I just didn't know you guys after all . . ."

Dean doesn't respond . . . he's thinking about what she'd just said . . . and about the vision thing . . . suddenly it hits him . . . but he had to make sure . . . absolutely sure . . .

Dean: "Hey Sarah?"

Sarah: "Dean . . ."

Dean: "I uh, I've got a favor to ask . . ."


	8. Chapter 8

Sarah: "Sure, anything Dean . . ."

Dean: "Good . . . now this is what I need you to do . . ."

* * *

>>>About 40 minutes later 

Sam pulls into the restaurant and parks. He shuts off the engine and gets out.

Sarah waits for a few seconds, and realizes Sam isn't gonna get her door for her, so she opens it herself and steps out.

Sam: "So . . . you ready? I'm starving."

Sarah: Smiles "Yeah . . ." and she starts walking in with him.

Sam opens the door and goes in, practically dropping it on Sarah . . . he didn't bother holding it open for her.

Sarah: Glares at the back of Sam's head . . . this was definitely not the Sam she'd gone out with the last time he was in town "So, I'm glad we got the chance to do this again Sam . . ."

Sam: "Uh yeah . . . me too . . ." grabs a seat at an empty table.

Sarah: "I mean . . . it's not uh . . . not quite the place I had in mind . . . but . . . I'm sure it'll still be good . . ."

Sam: "Uh-huh . . ." He picks up the IHOP menu . . . glancing over it.

Sarah: "So . . . Sam . . . I was reading this new book the other day . . . if I remember correctly, it's by one of your favorite authors . . ."

Sam: Looks up at her "Dr. Seuss?"

Sarah just stared at him, slack jawed . . . "Dr. Seuss!" she didn't need the whole date to tell that this . . . was most definitely not Sam.

Sam: "Yeah . . . man, I love that guy! He comes up with the best rhymes!" then Sam announces proudly "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!"

Sarah: Still staring and now speechless "Uh . . . ."

Sam: Frowns a little "What . . . I got it right didn't I?"

Sarah: "Umm . . . yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how it goes . . ."

Sam: Beams. "I thought so . . ." laughs "You had me worried there for a second . . ."

Sarah: "Ha . . . sorry about that . . ."

Sam: "So, you ready to order? I'm starving . . . can't wait . . . "

Sarah: "Oh . . . sure, I guess . . ."

Sam waves a waiter over and places his order.

Sarah: "Uh, just a fruit salad for me, thanks . . ." she smiles at the waiter.

Waiter: "I'll have that right out." He walks off.

Sarah: Decides to try again. "So . . . I was listening to some Mozart the other day . . . it was one of my favorite movements . . ."

Sam: "Mozart? Isn't he dead?" looks at her curiously.

Sarah: "Uh, yeah . . ."

Sam: Looks confused. "Then why bother? Nah . . . none of those dead guys for me . . . I've got Black Sabbath and Motor Head . . . what else could a guy need?"

Sarah: "So . . . no classical music?"

Sam: "Oh sure . . . lots . . ."

Sarah: "But you just said no dead guys . . ."

Sam: "Classic Rock isn't Dead Sarah . . ."

Sarah just looks at him in disbelief . . . What the hell had happened to him? It was like he'd been hit with the stupid stick!

* * *

A/N: Thanks again to all you readers for sticking with me on this! I really hope you're liking the story so far, and hope you will enjoy my future updates! If you find yourself with a few spare minutes, please remeber that feedback (such as ConCrit or praise or just a laugh) is always welcome :) . Don't forget to check back soon for another update! 


	9. Chapter 9

Before she had left for her dinner date with Sam, Sarah had shown Dean into a guest room of her house . . . a room that was hardly ever used. Dean had tried to decline her hospitality, but she'd insisted. So now Dean sat draped across a comfy reading chair with "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens resting gently in his lap. He was deep in thought as he read, when he was suddenly jerked back to reality by a soft knock on the door. He closes the book and sets it carefully on the small table beside the chair. Dean stands up, giving a slight stretch and walks over, opening the door.

Sarah steps into the room and takes a seat on the edge of the bed.

Dean: "So? How'd it go?"

Sarah glares at him for a moment, as if it were entirely his fault. "I don't want to talk about it."

Dean: "That bad?"

Sarah: "Well there's definitely something wrong with him . . . and you too . . . you're both just so different . . . can you fix it?"

Dean: "Well . . . I've got an idea about what happened, but I'm not sure how to 'fix' it yet . . . "

Sarah: "Well . . . is there anything I can do to help?"

Dean gently shakes his head no. "Until I know more about what's happening, there's nothing any of us can do."

Sarah tries not to look too disappointed "Oh, alright then . . . well, it's late, and I think Sam already left with the car . . . so you're more than welcome to stay here for the night . . . we never use this room much anymore . . ."

Dean: "Oh, I could nev-" He gets cut off by Sarah.

Sarah: "Please, I insist . . . and if there's anything I can get you . . . coffee, cookies . . . mini quiche?" remembering back to when she'd first met him at the Auction House

Dean smiles "Thanks, but I think the only thing I'd like is access to a computer . . . I left mine in the Impala . . . I didn't think Sam would leave without me . . ."

Sarah: "I'll bring down my laptop, you can borrow it . . ."

Dean: "Is there an internet connection in here?"

Sarah: "The whole house has been set up for that wireless internet trend . . . my laptop will connect from anywhere in the house . . . I'll be right back with it." She smiles and exits the room to get her laptop.

Dean walks over and picks up the book he'd been reading . . . with a sigh, he walks over and places it back on the shelf where he'd found it earlier. He didn't want to leave the room looking like a mess. He reads over some of the other titles as he waits for Sarah to return.

With another gentle knock, Sarah enters the room, balancing her laptop with one hand, and a small plate of cookies in the other.

Sarah: "I know you said you didn't want anything, but I can already tell you're going to be up all night doing whatever it is you'll be doing, so I brought you a few cookies." She hands him the plate and sets her laptop on the end of the bed.

Dean: "Thank you Sarah . . . and you'll be the first to know if there's anything to help with."

Sarah: "Oh, not done yet." She pulls a bottle of water out of the back pocket of her jeans. "Water for after the cookies." She smiles . . . she didn't want him to have to stop researching for even a second . . .

Dean laughs. "Thanks again . . ."

Sarah: "Well . . . I'll see you in the morning I guess . . . bye Dean . . ." She walks out of the room, quietly shutting the door.

Dean sits on the bed, leaning back against the headboard and opens the laptop. While he waits for the internet page to load, he munches thoughtfully on one of the cookies Sarah had brought him. Then, he gets to work . . . his gut instinct was screaming at him that time was running out . . .


	10. Chapter 10

As the first rays of the early morning sun intruded into the room, Dean lay passed out on the bed. He'd been up almost the entire night researching. Sarah's laptop rested on his lap, still open to the last page he'd been reading when exhaustion had finally caught up with him. As the sunshine hits his face, Dean wakes with a start. He looks around frantically trying to figure out where he is. This was definitely not the motel room he and Sam had been staying in. Then he remembers everything from the night before. About Sam and Sarah, and Sam leaving him there, and that this was the guest room that Sarah had insisted he stay in for the night. As he wakes up a little more, he notices the laptop still on his lap and he glances at the webpage that was still up. As he reads through it, it sounds freakishly familiar . . . but he couldn't remember where he'd heard it before. As he was playing the past few days over and over in his mind, a knock came at the door.

Dean: "Come in . . ."

Sarah gently opens the door and peaks her head in "Hey, g'morning Dean . . . you hungry?"

Dean: "Starving . . ."

Sarah: "Well, I made some waffles if you'd like some"She smiles.

Dean: "Uh, yeah . . . that'd be great, thanks . . . I'll uh, and I'll be down in a minute."

Sarah: "Alright." She shuts the door.

As Dean climbs out of bed and stumbles ungracefully across the room attempting to get fully awake, he plays the words from the webpage through his head . . . it was driving him crazy . . . he knew it sounded familiar . . . yet he still couldn't place it. As he steps out the door, he shakes his head, attempting to remove the haze of early morning.

Dean, walking into the breakfast room, "Morning Sarah."

Sarah: "How'd you sleep?"

Dean: "Uh . . . I don't really remember it." He laughs. "I was up most of the night; I'm not sure when I finally fell asleep . . ."

Sarah: "That's too bad . . . I mean, that it doesn't seem you slept very well . . ."She serves up a couple of waffles onto a plate for him.

Dean: taking the plate "These look great Sarah . . . thanks . . ."

Sarah: "Oh, no problem. I love to cook." smiles "So uh . . . anything?"

Dean pauses, then shakes his head no. "I think I may be on to something, but I'm not for certain yet."

Sarah looks a little hopeful. "Is there anything I can help with?"

Dean: "Sorry . . . not yet . . ."

Sarah: "Well what do you think it is?"

Dean: "I uh . . . I'm not 100 percent sure yet . . ."

Sarah: "Oh . . ."she said, picking up on the fact that he doesn't wanna talk to her about it. "Well, just let me know if I can help . . ."

Dean: "Yeah . . . I will . . . "

* * *

Sam is rudely awoken by the ring of his cell phone screaming in his ear. He fumbles around in the dark for a moment before finally grabbing a hold of it and hitting the 'answer' button. 

Sam: mumbles" "ello?"

Dean: "Sam, come pick me up."

Sam: "What? Where are you?"

Dean: "Well _you_ left me last night, so I'm still at Sarah's place . . ."

Sam: "Oh . . . oops . . ."

Dean: "Yeah. Just come get me now? We've got to talk . . . "

Back in the motel after Sam had gotten Dean and brought him back, Dean opens up his laptop and brings up the webpage he was sure held the key.

Dean: "Here, read this, does it sound familiar?"

Sam: Taking a look at the screen. "It looks like some sorta spell . . . "

Dean: "Just read it . . ."

Sam takes a look at the screen, and silently reads through the words . . .

_I call upon forces more mighty than I,_

_Enact my wish before I die._

_I call on thee in ritual ways,_

_Set this true for all days._

_Release the energy held inside,_

_Find it a new place to reside._

_May this be,_

_And they will see._

_May the seeing destroy then,_

_The very essence of these men._

_No time to cherish,_

_Then they perish._

_So it will be,_

_Obey my plea!_


	11. Chapter 11

Sam looks up from the screen at Dean. "Familiar . . . yeah, what's it from?"

Dean: "That's what we need to figure out . . . "

Sam: "Oh . . . that makes it a little harder."

Dean: "I know . . . but we need to think through the past few days and see if we can remember where we heard it . . . "

Sam: "Alright . . . well, we know it's not from yesterday . . . "

Dean: "Right . . . so what about before that? Two days ago we were finishing up that case . . . "

Sam: "Right, right . . . that one with that voodoo chick . . . man she was hard to get rid of . . . "

Dean: "Yeah . . . While we were down there . . . anything could have happened . . . we were in voodoo central . . . "

Sam: "Voodoo central? Kinda an extreme way of putting it . . . "

Dean: "Whatever, but we were there for what . . . three days tops?"

Sam: "Yeah, three . . . sounds about right . . . "

Dean: "Ok, so . . . start from the beginning . . . from when we first drove into town . . . "

Sam and Dean talk their way through the time they'd spent there. Starting from when they first drove into that town, right up until two days ago. However, nothing jumped out at them as being the time when they'd heard those words . . .

Dean reaches out and angles the laptop toward him, and reads through the descriptive paragraph right below the words.

Dean: Reading out loud "This is one of the most powerful voodoo curses. Only a few of the most powerful priestesses can perform it properly. When done correctly, and with enough power, this curse will remove a person's life force, consequently killing the victim of the curse. Most often, the life force of the victim becomes fused with that of the priestess who performed the curse, strengthening her. However, when performed improperly, or without enough power, it's difficult to tell what consequences will occur. It had been theorized by some, that the victim's life force dissipates into nothingness. While others speculate that that it's the beginning of reincarnation, and that the victim's life force gives new life."

Sam: "Well that's not a very nice curse . . . "

Dean: "You think?" starts to roll his eyes at Sam, but suddenly fiery pain explodes throughout his entire body, and he collapses to the floor of the motel room.

Sam: Panic floods into Sam . . . What was going on! "Dean! DEAN! What's happening!"

Dean lay on the floor, clutching at his head as images flashed before his eyes. It was the Readers Digest version of the past few days . . . them arriving in voodoo central. Their questioning session, their late night research sessions, and the final battle where they'd destroyed the angry spirit of that ancient voodoo priestess. As the pain slowly begins to subside, and Dean's regular vision begins it's effort to return to normal . . . Dean sits up a little bit, not bothering to try and actually stand.

Sam: "Dean! Dean what was that!"

Dean: ". . . Vision . . ."

Sam: "What'd you see?"

Dean: "Voodoo central . . . "

Sam: "Huh?"

Dean: "I saw the past again . . . Why do I keep seeing the past Sam?"

Sam: "I have no idea Dean . . . I'm sorry . . . You alright?"

Dean mutters an insincere yes as he plays the vision through his head again . . . something there had to be important . . . wait . . . that last bit . . . when they were trying to banish her . . . could it be?

Dean: "Sam . . . remember the fight? When we were trying to banish her?"

Sam: Looks confused for a moment, then nods, remembering "The priestess?"

Dean: "Yeah . . . When you were saying that banishing spell . . . she was saying something else . . . At the time, I didn't really pay any attention to the words, I thought she was attempting a counter-spell to deflect the banishment . . . "

Sam: Catching on "But she wasn't . . . any counter-spell would have had to have been in Latin, like the spell I was saying . . . "

Dean: "Right . . . but it wasn't . . . her words were in English . . . "

Sam and Dean look at each other for a moment, and then look at the words of the curse typed out on the screen. The thought occurs to them at the same time and they both say it "The curse . . . "


	12. Chapter 12

Dean: "That's got to be it . . ."

Sam: "But if that were it, we'd be dead wouldn't we?"

Dean: "Maybe not . . . see . . . that part about if it's performed without enough power . . . well, we know that she was powerful, but you were banishing her . . . what if you saying the banishment made her weaker somehow, so when she said the curse, it went wrong . . ."

Sam: "Alright . . . but we should still be dead . . . the paragraph says-" Dean cuts him off.

Dean: "The paragraph also says it's only speculation . . . that means that no one really knows for sure . . ."

Sam: "Oh, and I suppose you've got some genius theory as to what really happened then?"

Dean: grins "Well I wouldn't call it genius but, well actually I guess that's a good word for" - Sam cuts him off.

Sam: "Dean!"

Dean: "Ok! Fine . . . My take, is that normally, she would have been powerful enough . . ."

Sam: "I've heard this part already."

Dean: "Yeah? Well it's my story . . ."

Sam rolls his eyes

Dean: "Anyways . . . like I said, you saying that banishing spell probably weakened her to the point at which she didn't have enough power to do the curse."

Sam: getting annoyed "Yeah . . . we've established _that_part too . . ."

Dean: glares at Sam a moment before continuing "Fine . . . well she did it properly . . . but since she didn't have enough power, it went wrong. See these lines?" points at the screen to the lines that say

"_Release the energy held inside, Find it a new place to reside._ "

Dean: "My guess, is that that's our life force . . . only since she wasn't strong enough, it only took part of us out . . ."

Sam: "So you think we're missing part of ourselves Dean? I was wrong . . . this is no genius theory . . ."

Dean: "Just listen will ya? I'm not done yet!"

Sam: "Well get on with it then!"

Dean: glares "Anyways, that other line _"Find it a new place to reside "_ . . . the paragraph says that under the right circumstances, our life force would fuse with hers, strengthening her . . . but since it went wrong, I think our forces did exactly what they were told to do . . . they found a new place to reside . . ."

Sam: "Where . . ."

Dean: rolls his eyes "You and me!"

Sam: "Those aren't new places Dean . . ."

Dean: "Sure they are! The part of my life force ended up in you, and yours in me . . . Don't you get it? We're switched!"

Sam: "Wait . . . you're telling me we switched bodies?"

Dean: "Ehh . . . something like that . . . it's more like . . . we switched personalities. See, I've been talking to Sarah, and-" Sam cuts him off . . . again.

Sam: "Sarah? That girl who doesn't like Dr. Seuss? What does she know about anything!"

Dean: "She knows us Sam . . . well . . . she knew us . . . then we got . . . switched . . . and she could tell something was wrong . . . she helped me figure this out . . ."

Sam: "Sarah . . . who didn't like IHOP?"

Dean: "Sam! No one likes IHOP! Now FOCUS!"

Sam: "Ok fine . . . how do we fix this then? Because if part of you is in me, I want it out . . . now . . ."

Dean: "I don't know yet . . ."

Sam: "Oh _that_ helps . . ."

Dean: "Well you're not exactly helping either! Why don't you do some research? Figure something out!"

Sam: "Fine, fine . . . I'm researching . . ." starting punching at keys on the laptop.

Dean gets up and goes into the bathroom to take some aspirin for his now throbbing head. He reaches out and gets the bottle and opens it. He dumps three out into his hand and fills up a glass with water. He pops the aspirin into his mouth and washes them down with the water . . . then suddenly his entire body seizes up. The glass he'd been holding drops, shattering everywhere, and Dean collapses to the floor, slamming his head on the edge of the bathtub.

Sam jumps a little when he hears the breaking of the glass. A shadow of worry passes over his face "Dean?" no response. "Dean! . . .Dean!" Sam leaps up and runs over, gently pushing open the bathroom door. He gasps in horror when he sees Dean passed out on the floor. He drops to his knees beside Dean and shakes him gently, trying to get him to wake up.

Sam: "Dean? . . . Dean? Come on man, this isn't funny . . . Dean!" panic creeping into his voice Dean!"


	13. Chapter 13

Sam's freaking out . . . he can't get Dean to wake up. He looks down at his brother with a mixture of complete fear and ultimate love in his eyes. He pauses for a moment, and then pulls out his cell phone, dialing those three numbers their dad had told them never to call. "Cops are bad news boys." "Cops just get in the way." "They don't have any idea what's really going on." . . . John's words streamed through Sam's mind as he hit the 'call' button on his phone. He didn't care about the cops . . . he just knew he needed to get Dean to the hospital, and fast. And the only way to do that was with an ambulance.

911 Operator: "9-1-1 . . . What is your emergency?"

Sam: "My Brother! He . . . he just collapsed! I can't get him to wake up!"

911 Operator: "Calm down sir . . . do you know where you are?"

Sam: "Uhh . . . yeah . . . I uh . . . we're in room 13 at a motel . . . uhh . . . the address is 1764 S Wilshire Blv . . ."

911 Operator: "Alright Sir, I've got an ambulance on the way . . . do you know what caused this?"

Sam: "No . . . I have no idea . . ."

911 Operator: "Alright, well, please stay on the line until the ambulance arrives Sir. This way we can continue to monitor the situation."

Sam: "Alright . . . wait . . . I can hear the sirens . . ." Gets up and looks out the window. "I can see their lights . . . they're pulling in now . . ."

911 Operator: "Ok, I'm going to let you off the line now Sir. Goodbye." hangs up.

Sam shoves his phone in his pocket and rushes outside to meet the paramedics.

Sam: "Quick! He's in here!" grabs the closest paramedic and rushes back inside, showing him Dean

Paramedic#1: "Thank you sir, now please, just step back and let us do our job."

Sam pauses for a moment, but steps back out of the way just as the other two paramedics rush in with a stretcher

They do a preliminary check over Dean. They conclude that he has a weak pulse but is still breathing fairly well.

Paramedic#1: "Alright, let's load him up!"

The second and third Paramedics grab Dean and carefully transfer him to the stretcher. They wheel him out and start loading him into the ambulance

Paramedic#1: "Sir, are you going to be riding with?"

Sam: "Uhh . . ." He wanted to go with Dean, but if he needed to leave the hospital for any reason, he needed to have the Impala with him. "I'll meet you guys there . . ."

Paramedic#1 nods and goes out, getting into the ambulance and starting up the engine. Sam watched the paramedics in the back hook Dean up to an IV bag as the ambulance drove away.

Sam wastes no time as he grabs his laptop and their dad's journal. He gets his handgun, checking that it's fully loaded, and secures it in the waistband of his jeans. He looks around the room one last time, trying to see if he'd forgotten anything. He grabs the keys to the Impala and heads out.

Sam sits nervously in the hospital . . . it had been over an hour now, and they wouldn't let him back to see Dean. Sam was leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, head in hands and he was fidgety . . . his leg kept bouncing up and down uncontrollably. He practically jumped out of his chair when the doctor came up the hallway and called his name.

Sam: runs up to the doctor, an expression of sheer panic plastered to his face "Is he ok! What was it? What happened!"

Doctor: "Well, ummm . . ." the doctor studied Sam for a moment.

Sam: oh god, this had to be bad . . . the doctor was pausing . . . and he looked baffled . . . "Doctor . . . is my brother ok?"

Doctor: "Well . . . we uh . . . we did all the tests we could . . . and uhhh . . . there's nothing we can do . . ."

Sam: Panic rising in his voice "What! . . . You're telling me you can't find a cure!" this was horrible . . . absolutely horrible.


	14. Chapter 14

Doctor: "No . . . I mean we can't find a problem . . . so with no problem . . . there's nothing we can do . . ."

Sam: "No problem? Wait, does that mean he's awake now?" sounding hopeful.

Doctor: Shakes his head "No, I'm sorry . . ."

Sam: Now angry "Then what the hell do you mean 'no problem'! He fricking COLLAPSED! He wouldn't wake up! He STILL won't wake up!"

Doctor: "I'm sorry sir, I don't know what to tell you . . ."

Sam: "You can try again, and this time tell me that he's going to be fine!"

Doctor: "Sir, I'm very sorry . . ." turns, and walks away, leaving Sam dumbfounded in the middle of the hallway.

Sam stands there for a moment, then, taking a deep breath, he walks down the hall to Dean's room. He pauses at the door for a moment, watching his unconscious brother. He tries to gulp away his uncertainty and fear as he steps into the room and walks over to Dean.

Sam: "Dean? Dean, can you hear me?" pauses, nearly holding his breath from hope . . . but nothing. "Dean . . . come on man, you gotta wake up . . . I . . . I need your help with this one Dean . . . you're the one who figured this whole switch thing out . . . I don't even know how to begin to fix this! And then this happens . . . come on man!"

Nothing happened . . . absolutely nothing . . . and then Sam heard something. It sounded like . . . like . . . _AC/DC_! Sam looks around the room until he locates where they'd put Deans things and he goes over, picking up Dean's cell phone. He read the caller ID.

Sam: "Sarah . . ." he flips open the phone and answers it. "Hello?"

Sarah: "Uhh . . . Sam?"

Sam: "Yes . . . Listen, Sarah . . . I need to talk to you . . . I . . . I need some help . . ."

Sarah: "Sure, of course . . . but uh . . . I'm a little confuse . . . I thought I'd called Dean's phone . . ."

Sam: takes a shaky breath "You uh . . . you did. He's . . . he's in the hospital right now though . . . he's not really able to talk . . ."

Sarah: "_WHAT_? Dean's in the hospital!

Sam: "Yeah . . . that's uh, kinda why I need your help . . ."

Sarah: "What happened to him?"

Sam: "He uh . . . he just collapsed . . . and he wouldn't wake up . . ."

Sarah: "Oh my god . . . what did the doctors say?"

Sam: "They have no idea what's going on . . . but listen . . . did Dean tell you his theory about what happened?"

Sarah: "No . . . I couldn't get it out of him . . . Why? You think it has something to do with this?"

Sam: "It's pretty likely . . . See, we were cursed. This last case we were working on was this voodoo thing. Dean figured out that while we were banishing the spirit of this priestess, she cursed us . . . Sam went on to explain all the important details as quickly as possible. Then, right after he explained all this to me . . . he collapsed."

Sarah: "Voodoo? You mean . . . that stuff actually works?"

Sam: "It must . . . Dean said you noticed we were different . . ."

Sarah: "Uhh . . . yeah. Well . . . do you know much about this voodoo thing? Can you fix it?"

Sam: "I don't really know anything about it. Just what I learned while we were down there, and I've kinda forgotten most of that."

Sarah: "Well . . . wait a minute . . . Sam, I uh . . . I'm gonna check on a few things, then I'm coming up to the hospital . . . you'll still be there right?"

Sam: "Of course . . . Call me when you get here ok?"

Sarah: "I will." with that, she hangs up. She had just remembered about some books she'd seen when she was a child. There were in the library room upstairs. Well, that's where they were unless her father had auctioned them off. She heads upstairs to find out.

* * *

Sarah sat in the library, surrounded on all sides by books. The books she had seen as a child. She'd thought that they were books of poems, but then they'd also held strange pictures too. Not pictures of pretty flowers and sunsets . . . but drawings . . . diagrams of sorts. Looking at them now, and knowing what she knew, they were books of charms and curses that had been passed down for generations through different families. She wasn't sure how her father had ended up with them, but right now, she didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that somewhere in one of these books, might be a cure for Dean, and a way to put Sam and Dean back to normal.


	15. Chapter 15

Sam is still all the hospital. He hasn't left Dean's side for hours now. Every now and then a nurse or doctor would come in to check on Dean. They were baffled. There was no medical reason for Dean's comatose state. This just added fuel to the fire of thought that it had something to do with their current 'supernatural' problem. Sam was torn between staying with his brother, and going and trying to find some way to help him. He wanted to be there if Dean woke up. There had been a few times when he would have sworn on his life that he saw Dean move. But the doctors would just tell him it was nothing.

Sam got up and went out to the coffee pot in the lobby again. He was on his 7th cup already, and he hated regular coffee. He glanced at the door. Sarah had said she was coming, but she still wasn't there yet.

Sam had just started to turn and go back to Dean's room when something caught his eye. It was Sarah. She came running in the door carrying a pile of old looking books in her hands.

Sam: "Sarah!"

Sarah: goes over to him "Sam! Sam I think I found something!"

Sam: "Something? What kind of something!"

Sarah: glances around "Ummm . . . maybe we should talk about this in Dean's room?"

Sam: "That kind of something?" he was surprised. Sarah was new to this whole hunting and paranormal gig.

Sarah simply nods.

Sam: "Alright . . . come on." leads her to Dean's room.

Sarah walks in the room behind Sam and gently closes the door so they could talk without anyone overhearing.

Sam: "So, what are all those books for?" eyeing the books cautiously.

Sarah: "They don't bite Sam . . . and I brought them because they're filled with voodoo."

Sam: VOODOO! Sarah! That's what got us_into_ this mess!"

Sarah: "Precisely Sam! Voodoo got you into it, let voodoo get you out!"

Sam: he stares at her . . . she was abso-frickin-lutely nuts! "You've_got_ to be kidding me! Where'd you even manage to get those books anyways!"

Sarah: "In the library at my house. I remembered looking at them when I was younger. But now, since I met you guys, and I know the kinds of things that are out there, I realized that these books weren't poetry books like I'd thought when I was little."

Sam: "So let me get this straight. You . . . want me . . . to practice voodoo!"

Sarah: "It could be the only way Sam!"

Sam knew she was right . . . if you were cursed, you had to counter-curse. And they'd been voodoo cursed. That meant they had to voodoo counter-curse. But he was really hating this plan.

Sam: "Ok, but I don't even know where to begin with this Sarah!"

Sarah: "But I do . . ."

Sam: Shocked "You do?"

Sarah: smiles "Yep. It's in one of these books you're so leery of . . ."

Sam: eyes the pile of books "In there? Let me see."

Sarah gets out the right book and opens up to the right page.

Sam takes the book from her and starts reading through the text. His eyes get wide as he reads . . . there was no way they could get this done . . . it was impossible. The list of ingredients they'd need for the potion . . . there was no way in hell they were gonna gather those up.

Sam: "No. No way Sarah. It's . . . it's too dark!"

Sarah: "Sam! You have to do it if you're going to save Dean!"

Sam: "This!" points to the ingredient list. "We are_**not**_ gonna kill a virgin Sarah!"


	16. Chapter 16

Sarah: "It doesn't say kill Sam!"

Sam: "It says the blood of a virgin!"

Sarah: "Doesn't mean a dead virgin!"

Sam: "Duh . . . but it still wants the blood, and most powerful spells require lots of blood Sarah! How do you even know this will work! We don't even know what's really wrong with Dean!"

Sarah: "I think that's kinda obvious Sam."

Sam: "Oh, please, enlighten me, cuz I'm not getting the whole picture here! his voice dripping with disbelief and a little sarcasm."

Sarah: "Look, you told me he figured out you guys got switched right? Well it's obvious his body is fighting against the part that doesn't belong in him. It's like when out bodies fight back against an infection or a disease or something. It's trying to kick that part out."

Sam: "So Dean's having a bad reaction to my personality?"

Sarah: "Basically . . ."

Sam: "And this spell . . . curse . . . whatever it is will fix this? Do you even know for an absolute fact if this will work? "

Sarah: "Nothing is ever absolute Sam . . . but I still think we should try it."

Sam: "Oh, well do you have a virgin for me? One who's willing to let me slash her open and use her blood?"

Sarah: "Yes."

Sam stares at her shocked.

Sam: "I . . . I'm sorry; I think I heard you wrong."

Sarah: looks annoyed. "No you didn't. You asked me if I had a willing virgin for you. And I do."

Sam: "You do. And uh . . . just who might this be?"

Sarah: "That doesn't matter right now. Fact is that it's the one ingredient we don't need to worry about."

Sam: "Ok and I guess you think I'm just gonna waltz outta here and be able to find all this other stuff?"

Sarah: "No one said it'd be easy Sam."

Sam: "Well no shit Sherlock! I . . . I haven't the faintest clue where to even begin looking for this stuff! I mean . . . black salt? Doves blood ink? Bone of an Ibis? A Snakes ball of thread? Sarah, what is all of this!"

Sarah: "I don't know Sam! But think about this . . . this IS the only way to save Dean!"

Sam: "No, Sarah, there has to be another way! I mean, this is just . . . impossible! Where in the hell am I supposed to find Blood of Hephaistos? Or . . . or Krono's Blood? Or what about A Bull's Semen! I am_not_ getting that one . . ."

Sarah: "Well, this is what we have to get Sam. You need to find all those . . . vulgar, ingredients. It's the only way."

Sam: "Ok . . . ok, say I can find all this stuff. What then?"

Sarah: "Uh . . . You'll come back . . . we'll set everything up, and we'll perform the ritual and save Dean."

Sam: pauses for a moment "But this could still totally screw up and go horribly wrong."

Sarah: "Yeah, but I'm willing to risk that . . ."

Sam: "So am I. I was just making sure we were completely clear on that fact."

Sarah: "Yeah . . . we're clear. So . . . we gonna do this or not?"

Sam: "Yeah, but Sarah . . . Who's the virgin?"

Sarah: levels her eyes at him, dead serious. "Me."


	17. Chapter 17

Sam: "What! Stares at her in shock, his mouth hanging wide open."

Sarah: scowls at him "Oh come on Sam! Is it really that unbelievable that I'm still a virgin?"

Sam snaps his mouth shut with an audible clack and calculates his answer.

Sarah: angry about his silence "Well!"

Sam: "That's not what I meant Sarah . . . I just . . . I can't use your blood . . ."

Sarah: Arches her eyebrow "Why not? And don't you _dare_ give me any of that crap about not wanting to risk my life Sam."

Sam: "But what if something goes wrong! I'm not gonna risk you dying Sarah!"

Sarah: "Damn it Sam! I just told you not to give me any of that crap! It's MY life Sam . . . I'll do what I want with it! And right now, what I want to do is save you and Dean!"

Sam: Takes a long pause before responding. "I'm gonna go find the ingredients we're gonna need. We'll talk about this later Sarah. I'm not changing my mind about this." Turns and walks out to visit some of the more 'occult' shops in town to see what he can come up with.

Sarah: Mutters as she watches him leave "Neither am I Sammy . . ." Goes over to the chair in the corner of the room and pulls it up next to Deans bed, sitting in it to keep him company.

Sam goes to a few different shops, getting the ingredients a few at a time so as not to seem too suspicious. It took him most of the day to gather everything up. He was still worried about the spell though . . . He wasn't sure he could risk Sarah's life to save his or Dean's . . . Sure he'd risk his own life to save Dean any day . . . but Sarah's life? He shakes the thoughts from his head . . . Sarah had been right earlier when she said that it only called for the blood of a virgin . . . not the life of one.

* * *

Sarah had fallen asleep at Dean's bedside while waiting for Sam to get back.

Sam quietly opens the door to Dean's hospital room and slips in; carrying everything they'd need for the spell. He flips open the spell book to the right page and begins setting everything up for the ritual.

Sam uses the snake's ball of thread to form a circle around where he and Sarah will be sitting. Then he uses the dove's blood ink to write out the incantation on the Bone of Ibis. He sets the bone aside to let the blood ink dry and he pulls out the Mortar and Pestle, setting it up in the middle of the circle. He pours in the Blood of Hephaistos, Krono's Blood, and the bulls Semen before stirring in the black salt using the the pestle to crush up the salt and dissolve it into the liquid mixture.

After he was done setting everything up, he goes over to Sarah, gently waking her up.

Sarah glances sleepily around the room before resting her eyes on Sam.

Sarah: "Hey Sam . . . you got everything?"

Sam: "Yeah . . . everything's all set up . . . You sure you wanna do this?"

Sarah: Pauses for half a beat before replying. "I'm sure Sam . . . Dean's body reacted quicker than yours did . . . but this will eventually happen to you too if we don't do anything about it."

Sam: "Wait, why would he react sooner?" then he catches the answer before she can respond. "My powers . . . he's not used to having powers . . ."

Sarah: "Exactly . . . and I don't know how much time we have left before you . . . you know . . ." glances at Dean.

Sam: "Time . . . right . . . ok . . . lets get this done then . . ."

Both Sam and Sarah step into the circle and sit down, crisscross on the floor. They reach out to each other, clasping their hands together to form a circle with their bodies. Together the recite the incantation once, then twice, before Sam reaches over and picks up his knife. He looks into her eyes for her final permission. He receives it, and presses the blade into the smooth skin of her forearm . . .

Sarah feels a slight pinch as the sharp blade pierces her skin and she bites back a yelp as the pain sets in. She moves her arm, holding it over the mortar and pestle, and watches in trepidation as her blood drips down into the mixture. Her eyes glance up at Sam.

Sam tries his best to seem reassuring. They still needed to say the incantation one final time before the ritual would be complete. Sarah gives him an almost imperceptible nod and together, they recite the incantation for the third, and final time.

Sam glances around the room . . . surely there should have been some visible sign that something had happened . . . but he hadn't seen anything.

Then, suddenly, as one final drop of Sarah's blood hits the mixture in the mortar, a blinding light fills the room and pain sears throughout Sam's body . . .


	18. Chapter 18

Sam screams out in pain as his body falls victim to convulsions.

Sarah's eyes grow wide in fear as she watches helplessly as Sam writhes in pain. She hears shouts in the hallway and knows someone's coming . . . they'd heard Sam's scream . . .

Sarah: "Oh my God . . ." She glances around . . . not sure what to do. She makes a split second decision and shoves all the magical things into the shopping back Sam had brought them back in. She hides the knife and runs into the bathroom, grabbing some paper towels to attempt to stop the bleeding from her arm. Just as she emerges from the restroom, the door from the hallway bursts open and she is surrounded by doctors and nurses . . .

Doctor: glances around seeing Sam on the floor "What happened?" his voice sounds panicked.

Sarah: "Uhh . . . We were just sitting here . . . talking, and suddenly he just uh . . . collapsed . . ." She looks down at Sam where two male nurses were attempting to hold him still until the convulsions passed. Her eyes brim with tears as she watches. After what seemed like forever, Sam's body becomes still. She watched him carefully . . . she couldn't see him breathing.

Sarah: "Is . . . is he . . ." swallows hard. "He's ok right?" She looks up at the doctor.

The doctor was checking his pulse at the time and didn't respond immediately, which freaked Sarah out even more. Just as she started to speak up again, the doctor rose up and turned to face her.

Doctor: "His pulse is weak, and his breathing is very erratic."

Sarah tried to listen to him when he started talking about tests they needed to run, and blood work comparison since Sam's state seemed to be similar to Dean's. But she couldn't focus on his words. She watched over the doctor's shoulder as they brought in a stretcher and loaded Sam on it. The tears finally wormed their way out of her eyes as she watched them roll him out of the room and off to start their tests . . . He mind tunes back into what he's saying just in time to hear him say that he'll come talk to her just as soon as he knows anything. The doctor gives her a caring pat on the shoulder before walking out the door to follow the stretcher.

Sarah: whispering to herself "It's all my fault . . ." She lets herself slide to the floor. She tucks her knees up under her chin and cries. She hated crying where people could see her, but right now, she didn't care. Sam was hurt, and it was all her fault . . . if she hadn't insisted on helping . . . if she hadn't brought up the spell and insisted they perform it . . . Dean was in some type of coma, and now she'd forced Sam to join him in that state.

she must have cried herself into a restless sleep because she was woken a few hours later by a kind and gentle night shift nurse. The nurse helped her up and led her into the hallway, handing her a cup of coffee. Sarah smiles weakly as she accepted the cup and let the nurse lead her to one of the more comfortable chairs in the waiting room.

Nurse: "You'll be better if you stay out here for awhile . . . clear your head a little . . . you've got a lot on your plate right now, and you need some good solid rest." She smiles down warmly at Sarah.

Sarah looked up at the nurse . . . she was right . . . she was in no condition right now to help Sam and Dean . . . she needed to calm down a bit, stop the self pity and blame, and work on finding a way to help them.

Nurse: "Now don't you worry 'bout a thing Miss Blake . . ." her eyes glinted with knowledge. "You did a brave thing . . . now just give it time to work . . ."

As Sarah listened to the nurses words, she registered for the first time that the older woman had a Creole accent. She peered up curiously at the woman.

Sarah: "What did you say your name was?"

Nurse: leans down and pats Sarah's cheek "Never you mind dear . . . now rest . . ." and suddenly Sarah felt very tired . . . she felt the nurse take the coffee cup from her hands and tried to ask her if she knew about the voodoo . . . but she passed out . . .

The nurse stood up and glanced around . . . when no one was watching, she vanished. Ok, she wasn't really a nurse; she was just dressed that way to blend in. See, whenever any very powerful spells were cast on un-anointed ground, an Ancient was sent to investigate. When she'd gotten the summons to respond to this spell, she was sure that death would be involved. These . . . kids, for lack of a better term, had attempted one of the most powerful spells known to mortals. She had been positive that she would have to do some major work on the damage control front. But that brave couple had done what most highly practiced priestesses couldn't accomplish . . .

* * *

Back in the room, the mixture in the mortar slowly began to vaporize and snake its way through the air . . .


	19. Chapter 19

Dean was dreaming . . . it had to be a dream; though in his line of work, you could never be too sure. He looked around the room, taking in the stark white of the walls, the sickening aroma of too much industrial cleaner mixed with the un-disguisable stench of sickness and death.

He looked down at the bed with its bleached white sheets with their rough, over starched texture. Then he braced himself for what came next. He was in a hospital . . . Dean hated hospitals. The only reason he would be in one, was if someone he cared about was hurt. So he braced himself for the shock as he forced himself to look at the face of the person tucked under the sheets.

Dean: His eyes grew wide with bewilderment and fear as he took recognition of who he was looking down at. "Oh my God . . ."

Thought after thought raced through his mind . . . _I'm dead . . . no . . . no I can't be dead . . . why would I be dead? I don't remember being shot. I didn't get stabbed. There's absolutely no reason why I should be dead_ **'Is there ever a reason?'** The tiny voice in the back of his head challenged. _Well . . . no . . . but . . . this is me! I . . . I always thought that when I went, I'd go down fighting . . ._ **'But aren't you fighting? If you're dead, why are you still here?'** the voice queried. _Because . . . because . . . I'm not dead? But then . . . if I'm not dead . . . then how is this happening! There's no way in_ _**hell**I that I should be floating here staring down at my own body!_

And with his words, realization hit him.

Dean: "Oh shit! Why the fuck am I _FLOATING_!"

He looks around, slightly panicked. He was trying to see if there was anything around that would clue him in. No such luck. The only thing he saw was that the other bed was also occupied, but he couldn't see who it was.

Dean: "Uh-oh . . . "

That couldn't possibly be a good thing. He knew that if there was some reason he needed to be put in a hospital, that Sam would sure as hell be careful enough not to have him put in a room with a stranger. There were too many risks involved with that. There was no way to tell if the stranger was really a sorceress or demon of some sort out to try and kill one of them. But even if the stranger was just a normal human, there was too much risk. What if a demon attacked Dean and the civilian got hurt? No, if it was at all possible . . . he knew Sam would have made sure Dean wasn't with a stranger . . . which meant that this was someone he knew.

He took a shaky breath and tried to calm himself down a little. He tried not to think about whom it could be . . . Sam? Sarah? John? . . . He shoved all thoughts from his head and prayed that there'd been some mistake, and this really was a stranger.

After a few more seconds and another shaky breath, he began to walk –no . . . he began to float–over to the other bed so he could see who was. His breath caught in his throat and he felt his heart sink with the weight of failure as he looked down at Sam. He had failed. All those years ago when he'd promised his father that he would always and forever protect Sam . . . and now he'd failed him.

Dean: "I'm so sorry Sam . . ." At his back, he felt someone enter the room, but he didn't bother turning around; well, not until hear heard the person talking.

"For what?" The person inquired.

Dean whirled around to find Sam leaning casually against the doorframe.

Dean: "Sam! But . . ." His brow knitted with confusion. "But you're . . . " He glanced over his shoulder at Sam's sleeping form, then back at the Sam standing in the doorframe. "You're there." points to the sleeping Sam. "So how are you . . . how am I . . . how the hell are _we_ here!"

Sam: "You still don't get it? Dean . . . we were switched . . . you remember that don't you?"

Dean: "No Sam, I'm a total moron who can't be bothered to remember something as life-changing as having part of my soul switched with my brother."

Sam: "Ok, ok!" holds up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way . . . I'm just trying to figure out how much you remember. We've never been in this kinda situation before . . . and let's face it, we may remember different things."

Dean: "Why in the hell would that be?"

Sam: "Because, I passed out first. Well, you passed out first I mean . . . but because of the switch, it was me . . . is this making any sense?"

Dean: "Not really . . . but keep going . . . "

Sam: "Ok. Let me put it this way. My soul was in your body. Your body passed out first. Therefore, my soul has less memories of the past than yours does. Because your soul was in my body, and I didn't pass out till later . . ."

Dean: "Yeah, right after the spell . . ."

Sam: "Whoa . . . spell? What spell . . . "

Dean: "Oh, me and Sarah . . . well . . . Your body and Sarah did this spell to try and switch us back. All this creepy voodoo magic spell ingredient stuff . . . by the way Sam, you really owe that chick if we make it through this. She put her life on the line for you . . ."

Sam: "What! Why did you let her do that! What if something had gone wrong!"

Dean: Shrugs "I can't control Sarah, no one can . . . you know that . . ."

Sam: Pauses for a moment "Yeah, ok . . . true . . ."

Dean: "Yeah, but I'm just warning you . . . you owe her big time . . . so do I, but I don't think she cared about me in quite the same way." laughs.

Suddenly both Sam and Dean felt themselves being tugged away . . . it felt like something was trying to rip their hearts out . . . Dean was trying his best to fight against it.

Sam struggled for a moment before he remembered Dean's words. _Spell to try and switch us back._ He stops fighting against the painful tug and he blacks out.

Dean watched in horror as Sam's soul disappeared from sight. He tried to yell after Sam . . . to do anything . . . but he couldn't . . . he was putting everything he had into fighting the force that had latched onto him.

Dean is suddenly startled when he sees the body of sleeping Sam jerk awake and gasp for breath . . . he almost forgets to fight.

Sam: Dean! Dean if you can hear me **LET GO**! Don't fight it Dean!


	20. Chapter 20

Dean's head jerks up at the sound of Sam's voice and he loses his control of the fight. He can feel himself being ripped forward into blackness . . . and then . . . nothingness.

Sam looks frantically around the room, attempting to sense Dean's spiritual presence.

Sam: "Dean? Dean! DEAN! Can you hear me!"

Sam shifts his weight and starts to stand up.

Sam: "Damn you and your ornery ass Dean!"

As Sam speaks, Dean suddenly gasps awake . . . finally whole and reconnected with his body.

Dean: "Now, now Sammy . . . that's not very nice . . ." smirks as he starts to sit up, hiding his grimace of pain behind the smirk.

Sam whips around to face Dean.

Sam: "Dean! Dean you're ok!" Starts to walk over to Dean, but pauses when Dean hold up his hand.

Dean: Now sitting up. "Whoa there Sammy . . . no chick flick moments . . ." Smirks.

Sam: "Fine . . . and it's Sam . . . you jerk . . ." A smile tugging at his lips.

Dean: ". . . Bitch . . ." smiles.

Dean suddenly frowns . . . he remembered doing the spell with Sarah . . . but a cursory glance around the room reveals the blatantly obvious lack of Sarah.

Sam notes his frown and complies with a simple assessment of the room. "What are you looking for Dean?"

Dean: turns to Sam and scowls. "Only your girlfriend Sam . . . who by the way you really owe an apology to . . ."

Sam: Furrowing his brow. "Me? Why should I apologize!"

Dean: "Because you didn't treat her like the lady you normally do . . ."

Sam: "But that's not _my_ fault! That was technically _you_ on that date! Aww crap . . . you went on a date with Sarah!"

Dean: "Well only because I was in you're body! . . . Which . . . there's kind of a ewwww factor to that . . ."

Sam rolls his eyes. "Well being you wasn't exactly what I'd call fun . . ."

Dean: "Hey! That hurts Sammy . . . right here . . ." Places his hand over his heart, another smirk threatening to play at his lips.

Sam: "Whatever Dean . . . can we go find Sarah now? I need to know she's ok . . ."

Dean: "Yeah . . . but uhh . . . put some clothes on, cuz honestly? No one wants to see that kind of rear view . . ." Shudders from the metal scarring and turns away, tugging on his own clothes behind the curtain that separates the room for privacy if the patient wants it.

Dean: "You ready Sam?"

Sam: "Yeah . . . can we go now!"

Dean: Pushes the curtain back and walks over to the door. "Yeah . . . we can go now . . ."

Sam follows Dean out into the hallway and looks both ways.

Sam: "Which way?"

Dean: Shrugs "Split up . . . you take left, I'll take right . . ."

Sam: "Yeah . . . ok . . ." Turns left and starts walking towards the waiting room that faces west.

Dean takes the opposite direction and walks down the hall to the other waiting room. He gets there and looks around, trying to see if Sarah had come out here for a more comfortable place to rest

Dean finally sees her slumped in a chair in the far corner of the room. He quickly makes his way over to her.

Dean: "Sarah? Sarah, wake up . . ."


	21. Chapter 21

To Dean's relief, Sarah stirs slightly in her sleep and then slowly opens up two very tired eyes

Sarah: "mhean?"

Dean: "Huh? Sarah, are you ok?"

Sarah tries to sit up, but feels dizzy.

Dean: "Hey, hey . . . just take it easy ok? I'm gonna call Sam, and we're gonna get you outta here. Find you a better place to relax." he was remembering the spell and her blood loss and was attributing it to that.

Sarah: "Sam? He's ok?" Her eyes glinting with relief.

Dean: Smiles "Yeah . . . he's fine." Pulls out his phone and calls Sam to let him know he'd found Sarah.

* * *

Later that night, Dean and Sam were back at their motel. Sarah was laying on one of the beds. They'd wanted to keep her close in case there were any side effects of the spell.

Sam: "I still can't believe you let her do that Dean!"

Dean: "Well forgive me for not being able to change her mind Sam! Besides, she was doing this for you . . . she knew that what happened to me would eventually happen to you . . . and she was trying to prevent that. She loves you Sam . . . and personally, right now I don't think you deserve it."

Sam: "Oh don't you even give me any of that attitude, Dean . . . I'm sick of it."

Dean: "I don't give a damn what you're sick of Sam! I'm sick of sitting around watching you NEVER call her . . . are you trying to win the award for worlds biggest**jerk **Sam?"

Sam opens his mouth to respond, but catches movement out of the corner of his eye. "Sarah . . ." He walks over and sits on the edge of the bed. "Hey . . . how are you feeling?"

Sarah sits up a little and smiles at Sam. "I'm fine Sammy . . . really . . . but how are you? You're ok?"

Sam: Smiles "I'm fine Sarah. I . . . I really appreciate everything you did. I don't think we would have made it through this one without you . . ."

Sarah: "I did for a selfish reason though. I just wanted the real Sam back . . ." blushes slightly.

Sam: Smiles and brushes a loose strand of hair out of her face. "I'm really glad you did . . ." He leans forward and gives her a gentle kiss, fully aware that Deans in the room, but not caring at the moment.

Sarah gratefully leans into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Dean gives them a few minutes before clearing his throat . . . loudly . . .

Sarah: Pulls back from Sam "Umm . . . I guess I should go now . . . I'm really feeling a lot better, I don't think anything bad is gonna happen."

Sam: "Let me drive you home . . . it's the least I could do . . ."

Sarah: Smiles "I'd like that."

Before Sam can even ask, the Impala keys are flying through the air at him. He catches them and gives Dean a grateful glance before standing up.

Sam helps Sarah up off the bed and starts walking toward the door. He opens it for Sarah and waits for her to go through before he starts to follow.

Dean: "Sam, wait . . ."

Sam stops and turns to face Dean, a quizzical expression on his face.

Dean: "The car's yours for the night . . . don't worry about getting back tonight if something uhh . . . happens . . ."A smirk threatening to play on his lips.

Sam can feel the blush starting to rise up his neck. "Uhh . . . thanks . . . I think . . ."

Dean: "Just go, Sammy . . ." Gives Sam a light shove out the door and laughs as he closes the door.

Dean listens through the door as the Impala roars to life and the steady hum of the engine fades into the distance and he smiles to himself. Everyone was safe and sound and still very much alive. Plus, he knew Sam and Sarah were perfect for each other. Even though it had meant losing the Impala for the night, Dean thought it was well worth it to give Sam that shove toward the possibility of normalcy.


End file.
